The xx's follow up to their 2010 debut has to be one of the most anticipated records of the year. The first track to sneak out is 'Angels', so utterly delicate that you feel you could snap it in half as you listen to it, or that it'd wilt and die in the sunlight.
Pre-order the new xx album Coexist here.
Scottish harmony-loving oddballs Django Django continue to plough the depths of their excellent debut record for singles, this time churning up Hail Bop, a slowly building and swooning four minutes of jangling guitars and soft, Scotch brogue.
The video, directed by the wonderfully talented Daniel Swan, is a gorgeously imagined take on 3d modelling, with the band inhabiting a dystopian world that feels like an architect tasked with designing a new Emirati skyscraper having a breakdown.
Whilst we may have all been waiting patiently for a follow up to 2010's 'Swim' it's seems Caribou man Dan Snaith has actually been working on a new record under the alias of Daphni. Jiaolong is out October 8th on Snaith's own label (of the same name) and first track to be released, Ye Ye, is a six minute slice of probing, exploratory house.
Snaith explains the inspiration for the record came from "the number of transcendent moments that I, sober and in my mid-30s, have had in clubs in the last few years. Against my expectations, there's some magic in it still. The clichés about the collective consciousness of clubs still seems to hold water. Set against the backdrop of bland and functional dance music and the mind-numbing predictability of the EDM barfsplosion currently gripping the corporate ravesters, there is a small world where dance music lives up to its potential to liberate, surprise, and innovate. It's there that I hope Daphni has a place."
